This is a city of 10,000 people just 30 km north of Winnipeg on Highway 9 that nearly wasn’t a city. Although Lower Fort Garry, built just 10 km south of Selkirk during the pioneer and fur trade era of Manitoba, has been around for centuries, much of the Selkirk area was granted to the Peguis First Nation by tteaty in the 1800s. But when the white settlers found how fertile the land was, they took back the land and moved the tribe 100 km north to much poorer land. Gives new meaning to the old racist expression, “Indian givers!”
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Visit https://www.myselkirk.ca/
Points of Interest, Things to Do: Lots to do in Selkirk! Catfishing on the Red River. (Ice fishing in winter). Marine Museum. Golf & camping. Lots of places to shop, including the iconic Packers Ladies Wear. Numerous restaurants. There are numerous celebrations, including car shows, festivals in summer, fireworks on Canada Day and more.
Chief Peguis, A Saulteaux aboriginal from Sault Ste. Marie, was the first native to sign a major treaty with white settlers in what is now Manitoba, in 1817. (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/peguis)
There are several ironies associated with this icon from Manitoba’s pioneer days. First, he was not even from Manitoba, having arrived with the fur traders in the late 1790s. To have him negotiate the first treaty, which allowed for peaceful coexistence with the white immigrants and “granted” them land that stretched for a few miles on each side of the Red River down into what is now Grand Forks, USA, seems at odds with the apparent rights of long-time dwellers on the prairies, the Cree and Objibwa.
Second, while he entered into the treaty with Lord Selkirk, representing Hudson Bay Company, his grandson, Louis Riel, 50+ years after the treaty of 1817, led the Metis, allies of rival Northwest Trading Company, against the Selkirk settlers.
Third, Peguis later became disillusioned with the white settlers, the HBC and the eastern fur traders with whom he had been so close, when the settlers repeatedly reneged on the agreement. This was what precipitated Grant’s and later Riel’s fight against the whites: failure to live up to agreements. (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/seven-oaks-incident)
Fourth, when the local bands entered into a treaty that saw the establishment of the Peguis reserve near the town named after Lord Selkirk (Selkirk, Mb), they were granted good land that was not yet quality farming acreage. However, when the white settlers saw the high quality of the land, they forced Peguis reserve off the site into marshy, poorer-quality land 100 km. north into a remote part of the province. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peguis_9E.html
While Manitoba’s history with the local First Nations and Metis is one of broken agreements (on the part of the whites) and peaceful coexistence championed by the natives, it is also one of the white settlers using and abusing the “Indians” and Metis to act as their warriors, while simultaneously rewarding their friendship by stripping them of their rights and freedoms.
In a final bit of poetic justice, the whites, represented by Lord Selkirk, and the First Nations, represented by Chief Peguis, ended up separating, with Selkirk Manitoba and Peguis First Nations developing independent of each other, until today. Now, Peguis FN owns numerous pieces of urban property in and around Selkirk, including an urban reserve shopping centre, located on Manitoba Avenue, in Selkirk.
